Yorgos Lanthimos has switched to a “film a year” mode and presented “Bugonia” — a remake of a Korean black comedy about kidnapping and conspiracy theories, once shown at the Moscow International Film Festival competition. This is the first and probably the last remake in the career of one of the most original European directors, but the choice of material was not accidental: sharp social themes, grotesque violence and anarchist tone, the combination of funny with tragic — all this is quite in the spirit of the Greek.
Teddy (Jesse Plemons) is a quiet provincial loser who keeps bees and works in the shipping department of a biotech corporation run by Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), a face from business magazine covers. One day, Teddy, together with his cousin Don (Aidan Delbis), kidnaps Michelle and chains her in the basement. Their explanation sounds insane: aliens from the Andromeda constellation have infiltrated Earth with their agents and are conducting experiments on people, animals, and insects. To free the planet, Teddy wants to enter negotiations with Andromedan leadership, and for this he needs the help of one of the agents — by a fortunate coincidence, Teddy thinks his boss is an alien.
The producers of “Bugonia,” including Ari Aster, initially agreed on an English-language version with the original author Chang Jun-hwan, but at some point Lanthimos replaced him. Entering someone else’s project is an uncharacteristic step for him, and the screenplay noticeably differs from what he usually works with, but the director found in the material what resonates with his own vision.
“Bugonia” (the title is related to bees) is a satire on both capitalism and its unfortunate victims. The predatory face of big capital is represented by Michelle. When we meet her, she’s running on a treadmill and hitting her trainer in her glass mansion, then with a fake smile talks to the camera about “diversity” in her glass office and seems like a typical modern executive from the sinister world of “big pharma.” However, she has hidden sides that Emma Stone gradually reveals — this is the first Lanthimos film where she didn’t have to undress, but she’s almost completely shaved bald throughout.
The kidnappers themselves are a classic case of declassed paranoid madness. The walls of their cluttered country house are covered with clippings in the style of “They’re already here,” the spacious basement would appeal to Buffalo Bill. Shaggy Teddy talks about conspiracies, aliens, and bees with conviction and a peculiar iron logic — through his delusions, a sharp mind occasionally shines through. He and his mother (Alicia Silverstone in very brief appearances) have had a hard life. Clumsy cousin Don, like the actor playing him, is somewhere on the autism spectrum and mostly watches Teddy’s mouth.
The collision of deranged labor and insensitive capital is compressed almost into a play. Which Lanthimos, however, designs with his characteristic stylistic aplomb: surreal visual touches, a frenzied orchestral soundtrack, and at the end something like a music video or the most macabre fashion photoshoot in the world.
All of this is provocative, flashy, funny, and at times, if you don’t know the plot twists in advance, even shocking. And yet “Bugonia,” no matter how its fate turns, will remain a rather secondary work in Lanthimos’s body of work. But in the short term, this is, of course, a success — a crowd-pleaser for strong-spirited arthouse audiences. It seems our long-suffering planet should have gotten used to getting zero from everyone, but this time it turned out especially disappointing.